Foodie Beauties

Looks like everyone else is catching on, the Food Network isn’t only about good food…it’s got some good looking chefs to boot:

A portion of that tasty success can be traced to the network’s emerging lineup of under-40 faces — eye candy hired to teach America to boil, baste and bake. Some are so Yum-O! (to pinch a term from the station’s star, Rachael Ray) that they could easily slip into the cast of a
sexy soap.

Some of their favorites? Oh, the usual suspects (read:Giada, Giada, Giada).

Still, mangia minx Giada De Laurentiis — host of “Everyday Italian” and one of the network’s “rising stars,” as a spokesperson says — must believe her personality comes through best when her figure is on the menu.

Even if your idea of “everyday” Italian is dialing up Domino’s, you can appreciate that. And, according to a study by Simmons Research Group, which tracks consumer behavior, about 15% of the station’s viewers say they don’t even like to cook.

De Laurentiis is used to getting gawked at — on her cooking shows and beyond. “People have always been intimidated by the way I look,” says the Rome-born De Laurentiis, who is in Italy this week moonlighting for the “Today” show as an Olympics correspondent.

“People think you can’t trust a cook who’s that skinny or that beautiful,” she adds.

“When I started working at the Food Network [in 2003], I got E-mails saying I was too pretty to be a cook. They thought I was an actress.”

There are others, of course, like Dave Leiberman, Sandra Lee, Rachel Ray. Check the full list of profiles.